The Polish middleweight standout will square off against
UFC veteran James Irvin
in the main event of Konfrontacja
Sztuk Walki 15, which takes place at Towar Hall in Warsaw. The
promotion officially announced the switch on Wednesday.

Khalidov’s original foe, Lindland, was forced from the matchup in
February due to a hand injury sustained in training. Thereafter,
the organization revealed that Leites would step in for “The Law,”
but the Brazilian was soon also found to be injured. Irvin’s
participation was first rumored last week following the cancelation
of his Shark
Fights 14 co-main event with Houston
Alexander, which was scrapped after
Irvin allegedly tested positive for an anabolic steroid
following a December bout in California.

Irvin, 32, was released by the UFC for the second time in August
after suffering consecutive losses to Anderson
Silva, Alessio
Sakara and Igor
Pokrajac. The California-based “Sandman” served a nine-month
suspension from the Nevada State Athletic Commission between the
Silva and Sakara bouts after testing positive for illegal
painkillers. Irvin has won just one of his last six outings, an
October knockout of Angel
DeAnda under the Rebel
Fights banner.

The current KSW light heavyweight champion, 30-year-old Khalidov
was last seen in Tokyo on Dec. 30, when he punched out Yuki Sasaki
at Sengoku Raiden
Championships’“Soul of
Fight.” The Chechen-born fighter has won 18 of his last 21
bouts, losing just once since 2005. That loss came in March 2010, a
five-round decision defeat at the hands of then-SRC middleweight
champ Jorge
Santiago, whom Khalidov had knocked out four months prior.